I am a friend of Dave and Amy Freeman, National Geographic Adventurers of the Year for 2014, who will be paddling into Burlington in the midst of a 2,000-mile paddle from Ely, MN to Washington, D.C! They are going to stay with me in our lovely town of Jericho for a couple days on their way through, as they work to raise awareness about clean water and the dangers of sulfide mining. They actually have a canoe that is their petition - it is signed all over. Dave and Amy (who in their "normal" life run the Wilderness Classroom, paddling all around the world while students follow along & interact - pretty cool! wildernessclassroom.com) are part of an effort against sulfide mining, in particular where it threatens the Boundary Waters of northern MN, as well as elsewhere, and especially supporting clean water on lakes like Champlain. They are sailing and paddling this signed petition canoe from MN to Washington, D.C in 100 days, along the southern shore of Lake Superior, across the top of Lake Huron and then towards Ottawa and Montreal. Currently they are on the Richelieu River from Montreal to Lake Champlain and eventually will head on to the Hudson, past NYC and through to D.C.

Flotilla 3:45 pm: They'll be in Burlington on this Thursday, Oct 30. We're organizing a flotilla to come out and greet them as they paddle in that day from 3:45-4:30 at Perkins Pier at the bottom of Maple St.

Presentation 6:00 pm: Dave and Amy will then have a presentation, “Protecting our Precious Waters: Stories from North America’s Wild Waterways.” Their talk begins at 6pm at UVM's Davis Center in the Livak Ballroom. Hear the tale of their North American Odyssey, a 3 year canoe, kayak and dogsled journey across North America and learn about their current endeavor to paddle a petition canoe to Washington DC to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the nation’s most popular wilderness area.

You can check out more at www.paddletoDC.org or email me back here on FPF. They are cool people, and have a worthwhile effort going on, so I wanted to get the word out a bit. I live in Jericho and work at UVM and am just helping to get Dave and Amy some attention here in Burlington for the short time they are here. Thanks.

Feb 11, 2025

Feb 13, 2025, 6:30 to 8:45 PM

Feb 15, 2025, 9 AM to 3 PM